Some of my favorite questions from What makes Me ME?
It's almost impossible to wrap my head around the fact that it's been a year since I joined People in Education as the Director. The pandemic is challenging our social constructs in new ways, and for me, my relationship to the construct of time has been turned upside down.
For those I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Siobhán (sha-VON). Lately, I’ve been inspired by our latest media project What makes Me Me? when expressing parts of my identity. I'm a Libra -- always in search of finding balance and justice in the world. I'm excited by the power of young people to make social change and inspire new ways of being. I'm drawn to the process of learning and unlearning in the name of liberation and social change. Outside of PIE, you can find me enjoying life as an aunt, finding respite in the woods or near water, cooking up a storm in my kitchen and enjoying finding pockets of purple in nature.
Flowers from my backyard garden giving me joy!
When joining the PIE team, I set an intention to lead from the truth that “change is the only constant,” as we started to reshape as an organization. Little did I know how much change was on the horizon and how difficult it would be navigating new levels of uncertainty. Since our initial pause to adapt and grieve over COVID-19 in March, I've been truly enamored with the PIE team and our greater community. We continue to hold each other through waves of emotions, create moments of joy and laughter and also find possibility and opportunity in what often feels like a swirl of constant chaos. We continue to do so with grace, patience, care and love. I've been reminded of why I took the jump to come to PIE, a space to embrace humanizing practices even in the darkest moments.
All of this change is demanding us to be vulnerable and brave in order to imagine anew. PIE’s journey is not unique. It is a reflection of what we -- particularly people in schools and education spaces -- are all experiencing as we navigate a foggy horizon. However, it is clear we are in a moment that will not allow us to go back to school as normal. Although that is an overwhelming consideration, I see this as an invitation to shed the practices and mindsets that don’t serve us and embrace change through humanizing practices. As such, we must ask deeper questions and be open to learning. We must be vulnerable, tender and human.
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.”
As a person who struggled to learn to read, I’ve reflected on the classroom as a place where I became motivated by avoiding shame and rewarded for perfection; praise rarely came from being vulnerable. This created less space for curiosity and more space for anxiety, hiding and lots of sweaty palms. My own personal journey around this has led me to reflect on how schools don’t always enable vulnerable-positive environments in the name of learning and transformation.
For me, this has meant unlearning and rewiring myself in order to embrace the power of vulnerability. I am still on the journey of unlearning the conditioned anxiety, fear of failure and shame around disability and differences (even as I write this!). As adults, how are we practicing the vulnerability that is necessary in this moment?
This point in time is like a portal, inviting us to more deeply name, reflect and dismantle oppressive constructs. It invites us to rethink the conditions that dictate schooling and our ideas of learning. This includes confronting the truth of white supremacy and racism that is in our water and soil as a country in order to embrace transformation.
“Participating with the system of white supremacy is far from a privileged existence. It is a dehumanizing existence.”
What does it look like when we embrace transforming values?
In particular, we must name and actively dismantle the root of white supremacy culture in our schools. As a white person who was mainly educated in suburban public schools -- considered “quality education” -- it's taken me years to see that by being built on white traditional values, my schooling was steeped in a culture that normalized inequity and dehumanization. These values are at odds with the transformation we seek for our young people. We want to support creativity and collaboration yet our structures urge competition, scarcity and fear of failure.
Our current context begs us to move forth with intention and care. We must be radically open to recognizing all of us as learners in order to imagine and create anew. If we choose to pay attention to humanizing practices, it will grow within us as individuals and collectively in our institutions. How are we focusing on well-being, growth, and joy instead of the punitive culture that dictates so much of our schooling? How are we learning to humanize in our schools and learning spaces, in us and with our young people?
These are the questions that guide me as I continue to learn and grow. As I continue to help shape the next chapter at PIE, I am committed to embracing transformation with vulnerability and care, and to creating a place to practice the heart and human elements of learning.
With love and care,
Siobhan